Wall Street migrates to crypto rails, says Ondo Finance leader

The tokenisation of traditional financial instruments goes much further than crypto investors expect. Michaël van de Poppe shares insights from Ian de Bode, chairman of Ondo Finance, who focuses on making US stocks, ETFs and government bonds available on the blockchain. His message is clear: this is not crypto adopting Wall Street, but rather the opposite.

The growth speaks for itself. Tokenised government bonds grew in two years from $1 billion to nearly $15 billion. Tokenised stocks were launched last June and have already reached more than $1.5 billion. The momentum does not stop.

Global demand drives tokenisation

Most demand does not come from the US, but from outside. Major platforms like Binance, OKX and MetaMask are integrating tokenised stocks. This gives offshore investors direct access to US capital markets at last, directly through the apps in which they already trade. It is a revolution in accessibility.

Every major player wants to become the next Robinhood. The idea is appealing: crypto, stocks, ETFs and prediction markets all in one application. In tokenised form, this is simpler: existing custody solutions, markets open 24/7 and direct settlement in stablecoins.

Perpetuals on stocks as the next frontier

The crypto carry trade is becoming exhausted, but a carry trade on stocks? That market volume is many times larger than crypto will ever be. This is where the real potential lies. If you can crack perpetuals on stocks, the size of the market jumps to another level.

Nasdaq and NYSE openly indicate they want to switch to 24/7 trading, possibly as early as this year. As soon as they do, perpetuals will follow. Or perhaps perpetuals will go first and create the price signal instead. The interaction between the two becomes intense.

The real story is that traditional market instruments are migrating to blockchain because the infrastructure is simply better: 24/7 availability, instant settlement and global access. This is not crypto catching up with Wall Street. It is Wall Street moving via crypto rails.

The ultimate endgame is not a larger crypto market. It is crypto eating up the capital markets.